Category: Wildlife

Goldfinch

Michigan: plan now for spring treatment of hemlock woolly adelgid

If hemlock trees on your property show signs of hemlock woolly adelgid infestation, now is a good time to plan for spring treatment of this invasive species. Hemlock woolly adelgid, native to Asia, is known to be present in areas of Allegan, Mason, Muskegon, Oceana and Ottawa counties in Michigan. These small insects suck sap from hemlock needles and ultimately can cause tree death.

Insecticides are available to control the insect, and in many cases, landowners easily can apply them by carefully following label instructions and application rate guidance. In Michigan, the label is the law. Due to certain restrictions on the use of these insecticides, you may need the services of a licensed pesticide application business. Read more

Wildlife

Michigan: updated state forest road maps available online Friday

Thrilling ORV rides, outdoor exploring and forest adventures are waiting down one of Michigan’s thousands of miles of state forest roads. Every year, the DNR updates maps of these roads to improve accuracy and protect the environment, and then notifies the public of any changes. New maps go up at Michigan.gov/ForestRoads Friday, April 1, in an interactive web format and as printable PDF maps.

Map changes are based on considerations that include changing road conditions, data cleanup and input received from residents around the state. Maps show where state forest roads are open or closed to off-road vehicle use and which roads are only open to conventional vehicles. It’s important to stay on these roads when using motor vehicles to reduce erosion and damage to wildlife habitat.

The following mileages will be open to ORVs starting April 1: Read more

Wildlife

Mossy Oak Doubles-Down on Conservation Commitment with Inaugural Wild Turkey Stamp

WEST POINT, MS – Mossy Oak, The Official Camo of Conservation and the Official Camo of the NWTF, is taking its focus and efforts to a new level with a brand new Wild Turkey Conservation Stamp project that will donate 100% of all money raised (including expenses incurred) directly to wild turkey conservation efforts. Mossy Oak is honored to unveil its inaugural wild turkey stamp as part of what will be an annual limited edition offering to support the wild turkey; the species that led to the “fistful of dirt”, and the conception of the outdoor lifestyle brand.

Mossy Oak’s Limited Edition 2022 Wild Turkey Conservation Stamp will be a 1.5” x 2” stamp titled “A Mossy Oak Moment”, created by artist Dan Moreton, originally painted for Mossy Oak in 1996. The stamp is available now at store.mossyoak.com. Every last penny raised in the sales of the Mossy Oak Wild Turkey Stamp will be entirely invested into wild turkey research projects reviewed and approved by an advisory board including the likes of Dr. Mike Chamberlain and Dr. Marcus Lashley, among other devout GameKeepers.

Mossy Oak’s founder and CEO, Toxey Haas wrote the following letter that will be sent with each stamp order:

My dad taught me a lot of things growing up in the woods with him. Two of the ones he instilled from an early age that lasted a lifetime were to always leave my piece of dirt better than I found it, and to love and respect all critters we hunted, but especially wild turkeys. Later in life we started calling that being a gamekeeper.

The wild turkey hasn’t always been here. In West Point where I was born and where Mossy Oak remains, we didn’t even have wild turkeys when I was born. I had to drive down to Choctaw Bluff in south Alabama to hunt them. I can’t imagine a spring morning spent without the chance to hear one of the sweetest sounds in all of nature – a wild turkey gobble. And we dang sure want to do everything we can to ensure our kids and grandkids don’t have to wonder what that sounds like. No disrespect to so many other animals we love, but the wild turkey is the grandest of birds.

Without wild turkeys there would be no Mossy Oak. And it’s our responsibility to do everything we can with the time we have on earth to ensure the turkey hunting community leaves the wild turkey better off than we found them. Turkeys are a precious resource. And they’re more vulnerable than most of the animals we hunt.

We’ve always helped look after them, but we’re really proud to create our first wild turkey conservation stamp. Every cent we raise from this stamp will go directly toward conservation research and projects with nothing left over. If we can do what we can with the dirt we’ve been given and everyone reading this does the same, we’ll have left it better than we’ve found it. And we look forward to helping fund some of the projects being pursued right now by some great gamekeepers around the country. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

First Case of COVID-19 in Mule Deer Confirmed in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — While COVID-19 was confirmed in white-tailed deer in parts of the U.S. last year, the virus was recently confirmed in Utah mule deer for the first time after the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources submitted samples taken from deer during winter health assessments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has been collaborating on a research study to test various wildlife species for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). As part of the study, DWR biologists collected nasal swab samples and blood samples from deer during the annual helicopter captures where biologists perform a health check and place GPS collars on the animals. From November to December, samples were taken from roughly 280 deer statewide and were sent to two USDA labs in other states for testing.

On March 22, the APHIS’ National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames, Iowa confirmed a case of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant in one of the samples submitted from a female mule deer in Morgan County. Only one deer tested positive for the virus from the nasal samples, but several other Utah deer had the antibodies in their blood samples, indicating the virus had been in the deer population prior to the capture. Read more

Wildlife

SCI Sends Letter to Interior Over Gray Wolf Battle

Today, Safari Club International (SCI) joined 23 other hunting and conservation organizations, representing millions of sportsmen and women across the country, in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. These organizations “respectfully request that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) appeal the February 10, 2022, decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California vacating the 2020 rule removing the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) lists of endangered and threatened species.”

In early 2020, the Service removed gray wolves in the lower 48 U.S. States from the ESA lists. Of course, anti-hunting groups immediately sued to put wolves back under the ESA. Although these groups acknowledged that some populations of gray wolves have recovered, they sought to force the Service to restore wolves everywhere—from Maine to Washington State. SCI, along with the National Rifle Association (NRA), intervened in these suits to defend the Service’s science-based delisting rule. Unfortunately, a federal court in the Northern District of California largely ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor. It is now up to the Service to appeal this decision.

Gray Wolf populations have been increasing the last 20 years and demonstrate an Endangered Species Act success story. Now that the gray wolf is in no way endangered, it is time for the Service to allocate funding to other much more vulnerable species.

The best available science supports the delisting of the gray wolf, and the decision in California prevents species from being delisted even when they have fully recovered. Additionally, removal from the Endangered Species List simply means that federal resources are not used for conservation, and that management is returned to state agencies – which they are fully capable of in the case of the gray wolf.

The Department of the Interior and Secretary Haaland have a responsibility to stand on the side of science, management, and proven conservation strategies. They should not listen to misguided animal rights groups, which aim to have the gray wolf “endangered” in perpetuity. We look forward to Secretary Haaland’s response and will continue to stand on the side of science, conservation, and hunters.

Animal Rights, Wildlife

2,000-Mile Wild Turkey Journey

 This conservation feature was submitted to us by the National Wild Turkey Federation. 

(Photo Credit Brittany Peterson)

Wild turkeys are known to fly from time to time, mainly to and from the roost, but on occasion, a wild turkey will take a longer flight, to escape a precarious situation, for instance. The recent journey of 15 birds from Buckport, Maine, to Angelina County, Texas, however, entails a bit of a longer flight.

These cold-hardy birds from the Northeast were transported to Texas as part of the acclaimed East Texas Super Stocking project, an ongoing project, since 2014, to restore the Eastern Wild Turkey population to its historic range in east Texas.

(Photo Credit: Brittany Peterson)

Capturing these particular birds and relocating them to east Texas is a collaborative effort between the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the NWTF. Numerous other state agencies have supplied birds to the Texas project in recent years. Read more

Wildlife

Conservation’s Most Unsung Hero: John F. Lacey

By PJ DelHomme

spotlight-lacey-header.jpg
In a speech promoting passage of the Lacey Act of 1900, Lacey told Congress that, “I have always been a lover of the birds, and I have always been a hunter as well, for today there is no friend that the birds have like the true sportsman—the man who enjoys legitimate sport.”

No lawmaker to walk the halls of Congress has done more for wildlife than John F. Lacey, a member of the Boone and Crockett Club from 1898 until his death in 1913. His name is attached to the most important pieces of conservation legislation of our nation.

Hundreds of books have been written about Theodore Roosevelt. George Bird Grinnell has a few biographies himself, plus a melting glacier named after him. Gifford Pinchot’s name is attached to an entire national forest in North Carolina. And then there’s John F. Lacey, a congressman from Iowa who has a few pieces of legislation with his name on it. To be fair, John F. Lacey should have something akin to the Lincoln Memorial because of his conservation efforts. Yes, that’s a bold statement. Allow us to explain.

John F. Lacey grew up in what is now West Virginia and then moved to Iowa with his family in 1855. In his youth he attended no fancy East Coast boarding schools, instead being taught to read and write at home by his mother. He earned money as a paperboy. He joined the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, and by 1865, he had worked his way up the ranks to Major. He studied law in the evenings, got married, and had two daughters who survived past infancy. He became a lawyer for the railroad and traveled across the West’s changing landscape. He fell in love with the wildlife and despised the way in which it was being systematically exterminated. Lacey was a sportsman and became a member of the Boone and Crockett Club in 1898. Why does all of this even matter?
Read more

Wildlife

The High Cost of Food Plots

By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that there are no shortcuts to creating and maintaining healthy and viable wildlife food plots.  Recently, I’ve learned something else:  It’s going to be much more difficult and expensive in these times of high inflation and scarcity of supplies.

In a local farm supply store last week, I met a man toting a 2 ½-gallon jug of non-selective herbicide (glyphosate).  Curious, I asked him the price he was about to pay for the liquid costing less than $40 last year.  He didn’t seem to know exactly, but mentioned it was something north of $100.  This bit of wisdom was imparted soon after I had looked into the empty bins where turnip and clover seed used to be.

I didn’t want to settle for a blend of pre-packaged food plot seed that contained a substantial amount of annual plants for which I had no use.  However, it contained some perennial clover seed that I was after, so I snatched it from the shelf before it vanished.

At least fertilizer was well stocked in the farm store and the good news was that it was on sale.  Only a year ago, the 19-19-19 blend of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium was approximately $22 for a 50-pound bag; now it had become $35 for the same material.  In addition, pelletized lime was on sale, but the price was still high enough I balked in hopes of finding it for less somewhere else.

I then began to chat with the man with the weed killer and he stated that the Ovid elevator (989-834-2282) had food plot seed in bulk.  I then made a call to the Ovid elevator and confirmed that clover seed was available and I made the trek.

Sure enough, near the front door was not only clover in red and white varieties, but turnip, rape and radish seed fully stocked in the bins.  The ladies in the store were helpful and bagged some Ladino clover seed for me at $4.75 per pound.  When I asked the price of lime I was stunned, once again:  $7 for a 40-pound bag – another whopping setback close to double what it has been for many years.

When I inquired about the cost of glyphosate, the news got worse.  They were out of stock and informed me that they couldn’t get any from their supplier; however, a price of some $150 was tossed into the conversation.

When the cost of fuel is factored into the expense of planting anything this season, many folks are going to sit out this season of wildlife planting.  Those that remain committed must pay the inflated prices.

Cutting back on the size of food plots may be one alternative to reduce expenses and it may very well be the best solution with limited resources.  Cutting back on weed control or fertilizer to minimize overall expenses is never a good idea, because so doing will waste time, effort and money in a feeble attempt to be economical.

Similarly, when it comes to grocery shopping, prices are higher than ever and have yet to reach any reasonable leveling off.  When we understand the plight of farmers, we may begin to understand how we – the consumers – will find today’s prices a bargain.

Wildlife

The Importance of an Accurate Seeding System

Maintaining a diversity of food plot types can significantly improve the ability of your land to attract and hold a greater number and variety of wildlife species. However, different plants sometimes have various-sized seeds, which may call for several different implements when using conventional planting equipment. This is especially true when planting small seeds like clover that are particularly popular in wildlife food plots. Furthermore, planting seed blends is often a better approach. It will widen the window of attractiveness and act as a hedge against environmental fluctuations like early or late frosts or varying amounts of rainfall.

Fortunately, Firminator’s Accurate Seeding System can handle any seed sizes from large corn, soybeans, peas and sunflowers down to the tiniest clovers, without seed waste or the need to change seed hoppers. Firminator’s Accurate Seeding System is a true all-in-one food plot implement and the industry’s most versatile piece of equipment.

Whether you’re planting large or small seeds or a variety of both, the Firminator’s Accurate Seeding System ensures they are spread in the right amount and without waste. Operation of the unit allows for precise control and is also very simple. Once the seed hopper is filled, adjust the metering openings in one-sixteenth-inch graduations until you find the proper selection for the largest seed. Then let the Firminator Accurate Seeding System do the rest. Read more

Wildlife

2022 National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic

By Michelle Cerino

This past weekend, 21,939 upland hunters, sport dog owners and conservationist gathered in Omaha, Nebraska for the three-day National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic. This family friendly national consumer show included hourly seminars on four stages, activities for children, and over 400 vendor booths filled with educational habitat information, products for upland hunters and bird dog owners, and a whole lot more.

An hour before the doors opened, attendees gather along the plastic lined runway to get the best view of the bird dog parade.

Inside the show floor a first stop for many was the Pheasant Forever and Quail Forever store to purchase logoed apparel. What better way to show your support?

Well behaved English Springer Spaniels, Gable and Hemi, welcomed visitors into the Pine Shadows booth.

Heather Francis (a farm bill wildlife biologist) and I took advantage of a photo booth in Pollinator Plaza where props were available for both youth and adults. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife
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